There is no exact information of his birth, death and pupilage. Even Renaissance art biographer Giorgio Vasari does not mention Fiorenzo's name, though he probably refers to him when he says that Cristofano, Perugino's father, sent his son to be the shop drudge of a painter in Perugia, "who was not particularly distinguished in his calling, but held the art in great veneration and highly honored the men who excelled therein".
It is only known that he was studied at the Umbrian school.
In fact the whole edifice that modern scientific criticism has built around the name of Fiorenzo di Lorenzo is based on a single signed and dated picture (1487) a niche with lunette, two wings and predella and on the documentary evidence that he was decemvir of that city in 1472, in which year he entered into a contract to paint an altarpiece for Santa Maria Nuova-the pentatych of the " Madonna and Saints " now in the Pinacoteca. Certain it is that the early works both of Perugino and of Pinturicchio show certain mannerisms which point towards Fiorenzo's influence, if not to his direct teaching. The list of some fifty pictures which modern critics have ascribed to Fiorenzo includes works of such widely varied character that one can hardly be surprised to find great divergence of opinion as regards the masters under whom Fiorenzo is supposed to have studied. Pisanello, Verrocchio, Benozzo Gozzoli, Antonio Pollaiuolo, Benedetto Bonfigli, Mantegna, Squarcione, Filippo Lippi, Signorelli and Ghirlandajo have all been credited with this distinguished pupil, who was the most typical Umbrian painter that stands between the primitives and Perugino; but the probability is that he studied under Bonfigli and was indirectly influenced by Gozzoli. Fiorenzo's authentic works are remarkable for their sense of space and for the expression of that peculiar clear, soft atmosphere which is so marked a feature in the work of Perugino. But Fiorenzo has an intensity of feeling and a power of expressing character which are far removed from the somewhat affected grace of Perugino. Of the forty-five pictures bearing Fiorenzo's name in the Pinacoteca of Perugia, there is eight charming St Bernardino panels are so different from his wellauthenticated works in conception and movement, that the Perugian's authorship is very questionable. On the other hand the beautiful "Nativity", the "Adoration of the Magi", and the "Adoration of the Shepherds" in the same gallery, may be accepted as the work of his hand, as also the fresco of Romano and Rocco at the church of Francesco at Deruta. The London National Gallery, the Berlin and the Frankfort museums contain each a "Madonna and Child" ascribed to the master, but the attribution is in each case open to doubt.
